Courtesy of the club/Bill Hornstein
Courtesy of the club
Golden Horseshoe Golf Club: Gold
Williamsburg, VA • Public
Golden Horseshoe Golf Club: Gold
401 S England St
Williamsburg, VA 23185-4208
United States
Telephone
Overview
Back in 1966, Golden Horseshoe was ranked among America's 200 Toughest Courses by Golf Digest. How times change. In 2012, we ranked The Gold Course as one of America's 50 Most Fun Public Courses. "Trent Jones in his kinder, gentler persona," we wrote. "Even the island green seventh hole is a generous target." The evolved Williamsburg track hosted the 1999 USGA Men's State Team Championship.
About
Awards
Ranking history:
100 Greatest Public: Ranked since the inaugural edition in 2003.
Highest ranking: 32nd, 2009-'10.
2025-'26 ranking: 75th.
100 Greatest: The course was part of Golf Digest's inaugural America's 200 Toughest Courses list in 1966.
Best in State: Ranked inside the top 10, 2011-'16, 2019-'26. Ranked 12th, 2017-'18.
Previous ranking: 7th.
2025-'26 ranking: 8th.
Panelists
Ratings from our panel of 1,900 course-ranking panelists
100 GREATEST/BEST IN STATE SCORES
Shot Options
Character
Challenge
Layout Variety
Fun
Aesthetics
Conditioning
Reviews
Review
“Golden Horseshoe: Gold Course is a very fun course to play with four wonderful par 3's all of mid-length and three of which are over water. The course is in fairly good condition with firm and fast fairways and greens that hold a well-struck shot and putt pretty true. Layout variety is good with long and short par 4's, straight holes, doglegs right and left, good elevation changes with both uphill and downhill holes, water and several bunkers. Aesthetics is good, with plantings, flowers, and especially the views over water on the par 3's, like hole #16 par 3 where the slope adjust for my shot was -11 downhill over the water. It is a good challenge for the scratch golfer from the back tees, but multiple tee options also help make it very playable for the average golfer. Shot options are pretty good from both the fairways and around the greens and some strategy is needed like the second hole where you can layup short of the water on your second shot or go for it on this short par 5."
Read More2025
Review
“Golden Horseshoe: Gold Course is a very fun course to play with four wonderful par 3's all of mid-length and three of which are over water. The course is in fairly good condition with firm and fast fairways and greens that hold a well-struck shot and putt pretty true. Layout variety is good with long and short par 4's, straight holes, doglegs right and left, good elevation changes with both uphill and downhill holes, water and several bunkers. Aesthetics is good, with plantings, flowers, and especially the views over water on the par 3's, like hole #16 par 3 where the slope adjust for my shot was -11 downhill over the water. It is a good challenge for the scratch golfer from the back tees, but multiple tee options also help make it very playable for the average golfer. Shot options are pretty good from both the fairways and around the greens and some strategy is needed like the second hole where you can layup short of the water on your second shot or go for it on this short par 5."
Read More2025
Review
“Classic 60's RTJ design featuring dramatic par threes and requiring precision shotmaking. Beautiful Virginia woodland setting"
Read More2025
Review
“Robert Trent Jones' Golden Horseshoe Gold Course has been a fixture on Golf Digest's Top Public List since the list's inception and is a unique and fun public course in downtown colonial Williamsburg. The course sits on a small, but very hilly property with great land movement. It is not long by today's standards but is visually intimidating and quite tight with many tree-lined doglegs forcing you to be accurate off the tee. I would say the defining feature of the course are its four par threes, which all play similarly from elevated teeboxes over a river to perched greens. While there's not much variety amongst them, they are all strong holes individually, with the famous 17th and its island green considered one of the most noteworthy one-shotters in golf. There are not many courses today being built like Golden Horseshoe and this is certainly one of RTJ Sr's better designs and a great example of the penal architecture from the 1960s."
Read More2025
Review
“Course is in the middle of historic colonial Williamsburg, Va. Course blends well with the natural landscape and made good use of the few small ponds/lakes to create interesting and aesthetically pleasing approaches into green complexes."
Read More2024
Review
“Great par 3's. Several hole back and forth across gulley so some look alike, Condition good for National Park course. Fun to play."
Read More2024
Review
“A small piece of property by today's standards but with good design, especially the 4 par 3's located in contiguous land with water and sand. To come away with 12 and the same ball would be a feat."
Read More2023
Review
“A round at the Golden Horseshoe Gold course is like playing golf in an arboretum. Many of the trees in this beautiful coastal Virginia mixed pine and hardwood forest have been around longer than you. If you hit it straight, it’s hard not to love this course. If you’re a big bomber who gets wild 3-4 times a round, well...try to find a club that you hit straight before you play here. The course is renowned for its four excellent par 3 holes. I agree—each stands on its own merits—but there is a “sameness” to them. They are all downhill over a water hazard with lengths that vary by only about 20-25 yards. The 16th is the best and is truly a great par 3 hole by any measure. The finish is outstanding. While I rarely like uphill golf holes, 17 is the exception, as the hole wanders beautifully up through a natural amphitheater to a green that Jones cited artfully among the trees. 18 provides a strong finish that requires a long accurate drive to maneuver around the huge dogleg, and the approach is guarded by a pond left."
Read More2023
Review
“A classic RTJ gem with his iconic long square tee boxes set in the shadows of Colonial Williamsburg. Four wonderful, beautiful, challenging par3’s."
Read More2022
Review
“Great contours around the greens of a couple of long par fours (#10 & #18) to encourage shaping with low running shots. Two of the three Par-5 below 500 yards takes away a bit from variety and challenge."
Read More2022
